Lasers & Bracelets Volume 1
by Wonderverse
Summary: A WW epic mostly set in a space setting. A major arc will focus on "Rome Galactic"; where Rome in a parallel galaxy is a galactic empire instead of an ancient earthly one.
1. Chapter 1

Lasers & Bracelets

Volume 1

A Wonder Woman Series

Wonder ship; Milky Way Galaxy; Multiverse

The Amazonian demigod Diana brought her signature invisible starship out of hyperdrive to begin her latest mission of space exploration. This was something that she had wanted to do for a very long time. She had just wanted to get away from everything; particularly earth. Being the last of her kind Diana had chosen not to resurrect her people where she could have ruled as queen eternal after Ares had slaughtered them; all to get at her no less. She had lost much more and hadn't wanted to look back; she'd let earth solve its own problems for a while. For now she would simply move forward; by taking to the stars. Fortunately to empower her to this end her magical all purpose vehicle could function in any environment as needed; thus she needed no other. She had contemplated exploring earth's oceans but getting away from earth had felt more right than anything else thus she had done just that. There were countless species out here and Diana being a trained scientist was intrigued to learn about them all. She had only done this to a moderate extent when the Amazons had thrived; but now she would have to represent them all on her own. Ares had gone back into the woodpile as he always did; she didn't expect to find him out here but anything was possible. She hoped to not encounter her archenemy for at least a century; for mortals that was a lot but for her it was nothing.

A massive asteroid field greeted her as she went to sublight velocity. There were reports of many alien beings in this spatial region but surprisingly knowledge on them was rather lacking. She wanted to help clarify that. Earth still was way behind on its space program and she'd used her considerable influence as WW to help move things along but earth was still moving too slow in her view for her to wait to come back out here. That being said she'd developed her own policy of non interference with earth's evolutionary development. This could apply to any developing civilization in general. She'd also chosen the invention of the hyperdrive as a way to gauge how far a civilization had developed. She'd honestly gotten this idea from the hit earth show Star Trek (one of her favorites); particularly the prime directive concept. She thought that was brilliant and thought that could work well here as she represented both earth and the Amazons (even though she was the last of the latter in that sense) as both an explorer and ambassador.

She piloted the wonder ship into the asteroid field. The ship's scanners reported there was a lot of vessel activity present; and all alien of course. She focused her scans on them. Some of the species appeared as familiar on the ship's scanners; others not. They originated from a to/from point deeper in the field. She had the ship lock onto that point and let it auto fly for it. It did so deftly as only such a physics defying vehicle of its advanced magical capability could in fact do. The daughter of Zeus took in the sights of the asteroid field as they went deeper into it. Nothing was trivial to the explorer/superhero/warrior from afar. She was a student of the multiverse and all its ways; along with ultimately being its divine protector. This place was essentially her celestial playground. It was all stardust inasmuch as she was; her human part anyway; her divinized portion remained beyond the reach of those things.

The ship dodged around the flying asteroids with ease whereas the many other alien pilots in most cases had to maneuver their more physical vessels manually to get the same results they wanted due to the numerous space rocks present. Then, she saw it - it was a massive space port and travel hub built right into a massive asteroid; this was where all the ships were coming/going from. Again, nothing was trivial to her. This sight was nothing less than...wonderful for her to see. That word was a vital part of her nom de guerre after all. The ship instinctively assumed a visible design inspired by some alien ones they had encountered in the past. This was a good idea as she wasn't trying to draw or cause trouble, or appear deceptive in any way; hence the negation of the ship's normal invisible appearance. The goal was to be open and friendly.

The ship's comm system crackled to life. "Unidentified vessel; this is Coreyantor control," a robotic voice said. "State your business here."

"I am Diana of the Amazon nation."

"We are not familiar with that species."

"You wouldn't be. I'm the first of my kind to visit here that I am aware of."

"Very well. Proceed to the landing coordinates that you shall receive. From there you will be fully inspected by our security units. Cooperate fully or strict penalties may occur."

"Understood." By Hera they're super friendly. They must have had trouble here recently. That's worth looking into more. She took manual control of the wonder ship and flew it to the coordinates received. Her first galactic mission of pure exploration in a very long time was about to occur. She couldn't wait.


	2. Chapter 2

Wonder Woman:

Coreyantor was an interesting place to be sure. Earth diversity was one thing; but this was something else entirely. There were aliens of all kinds here. It was impossible to describe this in words. And while I was certainly the only earthling/Amazon around to be sure there were plenty of what could be termed humanoids strolling about. There were many nonhumanoids as well. They conversed and bantered away in a multitude of different languages. They paid me no heed as I discreetly observed them. I didn't really know where to begin. And this was only a trade hub! This was a kind of getting lost I didn't really mind. There was no fighting; no good/evil. No Ares. It was just me exploring. This was what I really was at heart; an explorer. Why would I ever want to leave that?

I spotted a possible dive equivalent along the main recreational area. Such a thing was always universally recognizable. I entered. The clientele was equally as diverse as the rest of the trade hub had appeared to be thus far. I walked up to the main bar; there were several others positioned at different levels throughout the structure. There were other bars throughout the vending section that served as competition but it wasn't rocket science to tell that this was the dominant one from observation alone. I could explore the others too but this was the best place to start. An alien bartender with four arms approached me. "What'll it be lady?" Through my divine power and/or my mental link to the wonder ship I could understand all languages and be understood in all languages. "I'll have your beverage of the day if you have one." "Sure thing." I readied a credit card that the wonder ship had replicated for just this very purpose. Essentially I had unlimited money. Nothing wrong with that! Dear old dad and engineer Hephaestus had thought of everything when it came to the wonder vehicle's creation. Being a badass demigod did have its advantages to be sure! Why not use them? He returned with a dark...purple looking concoction. I wanted to say what the hell was this but I didn't. I cleared my throat paid anyway and took my first sip after paying. Maybe that wasn't the best approach but it didn't matter. It was done now. It was...interesting...? The barman of sorts watched me with six black eyes. I kept a blank expression, using Amazonian discipline to mask what could have been constituted as my true reaction. It was neither the best nor worst beverage that I'd ever had; it was sweet yet bland. But again, I was here to try new things and thus sucked it up.

The barman continued to hang around. "You're new around here aren't you?" I scoffed. "How'd you guess that?" "I remember every face that comes through here." He pointed at his head with a three fingered hand while saying this. I raised a curious brow. "Is that a trait of your species?" "It is. How'd you know that? Are you familiar with my kind?" "No; but it made sense." "So what do you do for a living...?" "Diana. I'm...an explorer." "Explorer? Doesn't sound very profitable." "In a monetary sense, no; but it is nonetheless very rewarding." "But how do you make the ends meet?" "A little of this and that." That had him studying me with even greater curiosity. It wasn't bad to keep people guessing. However, the scientist in me wanted to know things - especially why the Coreyantor overseers were so anal. I asked him about this. One thing one could always count on any world being true was that bartenders kept their ears, or similar, close to the ground. "There's been a lot of regional trouble here; security got beefed up because of it." "Why?" "There's some kind of empire from the other side of the galaxy called the Haken. They've been raiding freighters that come and go through here." "Why?" He gave an action that I could only describe as his version of a shrug. "Conquest? Who knows with these power hungry despots?" That had me thinking. Before I could inquire further however new customers arrived. "Got to go. Welcome to Coreyantor. Don't let the controllers give you too much grief." I shared a small laugh with him. "I'll try not to. Thanks." He moved off; he hadn't given me a name. That was all right. I could just as easily return through here again. But now these Haken had me thinking a lot. They definitely were not familiar. I mentally asked the wonder ship to double check every record that it had, but it came back negative on all searches to my mind. Great... It seemed that I had a real mystery on my hands, even though the Haken seemed readily familiar to many around here. It would be beneficial to learn as much about them as possible.

I returned to enjoying my beverage and just casting a curious look around the establishment. The upper level had a dance area that was now starting to draw something of a crowd. I took my drink from the bar and went ahead up there. It was a lively setting and it was only getting more so. I wasn't sure what the local time was but I'd wager that it was evening. That meant youth would come here to relax or meet up with peers, as they would on any other world. So much was different yet simultaneously the same. It was a pattern I'd noticed throughout my many travels; both on earth and beyond. I stayed in the background of the dance area as it continued to draw a growing crowd. I heard some guests say that it was indeed evening. Booze sales were going up. It was always good to know that the alien moonshine biz was doing well! Good thing there was no interstellar prohibition going on; then we would have been in some real trouble to be sure!

While tempted to play scientist and indulge my curiosity as such - especially regarding these apparent shady Haken types - I chose rather to enjoy the moment for what it was. There would be plenty of time for security research soon enough; and I also wanted to make sure these Haken would never pose a threat to earth in any way. Time would tell.


	3. Chapter 3

As much as I wanted to stay there on Coreyantor to investigate the Haken situation (I would definitely continue to monitor it!) the wonder plane sent me an interesting alert. It had been scanning neighboring galaxies and one had drawn its AI curiosity very much so - Rome Galactic. Apparently in this parallel galaxy Rome was not a city state but rather a planet to an entire galaxy. It paralleled earth's Rome in many ways but not in others. This was fascinating in/of itself. It definitely warranted further investigation. I took my leave from the milky way and took a hyperspace route via wonder plane to this strangest of places that my father had permitted to exist.

It only made sense why the plane had picked this galaxy for further exploration; much of Rome had been taken from the ancient Greeks. It would be a most interesting scientific study to see how all was similar/different.

With the plane's magical engine we arrived in minutes. We arrived in the outer portion of the...Roman galaxy. Very interesting indeed. Of course being ever invisible made the WP the perfect research vehicle. We could quietly observe natural settings without interfering in natural affairs/developments.

I was most curious to see where this star trek would take us. The WP scanned a bunch of stuff as only it could and sent the data to my main cockpit screen for review. I saw images of Roman legionary warships. I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the strangeness of it all. I saw intercepted transmissions; they literally prayed for Jovian intervention and success in their endeavors. I laughed again. They definitely copied our gods still and renamed them for their own.

I had the plane then scan for any magical threats; along with discovering how long this Rome had been an empire. Had it ever been a republic? The plane scans concluded there were no known magical beings/threats. That was good. I wouldn't be stepping on any godly toes here; but that was always possible. The plane also said that Rome galactic had been a republic once, but not for ten thousand years. It was due to a variety of factors; plebeian/patrician conflicts being just part of it. Their emperor was called Caesar too; but not for the same reasons. Interestingly enough...women could be Caesar too...

The plane knew what I wanted in an exploratory mission; its incomparable AI could do that at super speed. It had indeed chosen right with this one. I would spend a few hours doing some solid observation - both environmental and cultural - and then maybe actually go into galactic Roman society as a "citizen." It should prove exciting either way.


End file.
